Just a quick little note to update you on the robots thang: I think we are now moving away from my slightly trippy spaced-out vision of the future, which is fine. The main focus is now on producing something which looks nice and professional(ish), regardless of whether or not we meet the deadline.
I am spending easter doing concept work on the interiors and hopefully producing some 3D models, on Sketch-up, which is much friendlier than maya. I am also recruiting a rugged band of my most bizzare friends to film the storyboards so that we have some reference for when (if) we start animating.
The End
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Grrrr! I'm Angry!
I warn you now I am in a particularly foul mood so I may go into full on rant mode but for the time being I shall try to keep things civilized. I think me previous blogs have been a little vague so I am going to attempt to write about all the stuff I have been doing in a little more detail.
So, to begin with I shall talk about the literature revue and all that lark. At the moment my proposed dissertation title is ‘Themes of Childhood In The Work Of The Quay Brothers’, just a tad ambitious methinks but you never know. This title came to be as a result of the lit review which I did on general stuff surrounding the Quays, amongst this I found some theory about childhood in their film This Unnameable Little Broom or The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Like the good little aspiring plagiarist I am I have stolen the idea and ran with it; today liberating the library of its stock of books that have anything to do with child psychology and how it has been incorporated into art. Providing I can understand this stuff I intend to do my next review on it and sound dead clever and bookwormish.
Next, scripting and comping! I will be honest, I have little, if any interest in this and don’t particularly enjoy doing it and since there are lots of other things I’d rather be doing I delegate it a very limited portion of my time. Nevertheless, I did, at first try and do the comping task but after a fruitless morning of trying to get the sky to move with the background (I only got the background in because of the a tutorial Pete showed me) and the Talking Dog yapping at my heels I gave up, slapped an angry logo on it, and rendered it, all in the space of five minuets, done!
You may be surprised to learn that despite my general anti-computer stance I have actually done scripting before! Granted, it was a very basic self-taught form of scripting but it does mean I have a rough understanding of computer speak. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I am any good, or I enjoy it, quite the opposite really. I do try and pay attention to the lessons but I find I often drift off into la la land and emerge with a random script that I might be able to write but not necessarily know what it does and why. So I think the scripting project will be fun. :d
A quick ikkle mention for the editing movie mash-up thing, I quite enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised by how relaxing it was to do. It was interesting to watch the trailers, in particular the terminator one, to see how themes such as eye-line, movement or camera angles where carried from one scene to another to keep the trailer flowing smoothly. I’m afraid all that went out the window when I got my hands on it as I was more interested in making Arnie dance to Singin’ in the Rain.
Ok, I’m getting tired now so I shall discuss talking dog next week.
So, to begin with I shall talk about the literature revue and all that lark. At the moment my proposed dissertation title is ‘Themes of Childhood In The Work Of The Quay Brothers’, just a tad ambitious methinks but you never know. This title came to be as a result of the lit review which I did on general stuff surrounding the Quays, amongst this I found some theory about childhood in their film This Unnameable Little Broom or The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Like the good little aspiring plagiarist I am I have stolen the idea and ran with it; today liberating the library of its stock of books that have anything to do with child psychology and how it has been incorporated into art. Providing I can understand this stuff I intend to do my next review on it and sound dead clever and bookwormish.
Next, scripting and comping! I will be honest, I have little, if any interest in this and don’t particularly enjoy doing it and since there are lots of other things I’d rather be doing I delegate it a very limited portion of my time. Nevertheless, I did, at first try and do the comping task but after a fruitless morning of trying to get the sky to move with the background (I only got the background in because of the a tutorial Pete showed me) and the Talking Dog yapping at my heels I gave up, slapped an angry logo on it, and rendered it, all in the space of five minuets, done!
You may be surprised to learn that despite my general anti-computer stance I have actually done scripting before! Granted, it was a very basic self-taught form of scripting but it does mean I have a rough understanding of computer speak. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I am any good, or I enjoy it, quite the opposite really. I do try and pay attention to the lessons but I find I often drift off into la la land and emerge with a random script that I might be able to write but not necessarily know what it does and why. So I think the scripting project will be fun. :d
A quick ikkle mention for the editing movie mash-up thing, I quite enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised by how relaxing it was to do. It was interesting to watch the trailers, in particular the terminator one, to see how themes such as eye-line, movement or camera angles where carried from one scene to another to keep the trailer flowing smoothly. I’m afraid all that went out the window when I got my hands on it as I was more interested in making Arnie dance to Singin’ in the Rain.
Ok, I’m getting tired now so I shall discuss talking dog next week.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Avast!
Avast! What is that on the horizon?!?! Why it’s the good ship ignorance lumbering into view! With her merry crew of drunkards, now fueled by whiskey not rum.
She may have sprung a leak or two but the old girl will pull through; hoisting the storyboard sail so that the winds of narrative will blow us to calmer waters and away from the craggy shores of over zealo
us set building and such like.
The gist of what my pirate ultra-ego is trying to get across is that we launched into our set and character build a tad too hastily, before we had any proper storyboards actually in place, hence not really knowing what we required. Thankfully that man I can’t remember the name of, the set builder guy, set us back on the straight and narrow and I am now hard at work producing a storyboard, which will then be used for the animatic and hopefully be ready for Friday.
On Friday we all got together and h
ad a day of building which was quite a nice organic experience; watching the character develop as we found stuff that would suite it. The characters we had built where the acne brothers or whatever there called, a policeman, Jim, Carl and the 
Sarge. Considering they are constructed out of odds and ends that Ben had amassed and a collection of hacked up Barbies and Action Men the evil aliens look surprisingly like my concept sketches (which I now have for your viewing pleasure along with some possible ideas for the sets, im sorry if some of them are sidewase) and the policeman bares some resemblance. The other characters are a bit different as they are adapted from things that Ben had already built. Ben has also constructed a cityscape, which I think sums up the overall hicildy-picaldy look we want. Hopefully we will be able to use all of this in the animation but if worse comes to worse we can always use them as guides for future building sessions. I will try t
o get some photographs of all of this along with the animatic for next week.
She may have sprung a leak or two but the old girl will pull through; hoisting the storyboard sail so that the winds of narrative will blow us to calmer waters and away from the craggy shores of over zealo
us set building and such like.The gist of what my pirate ultra-ego is trying to get across is that we launched into our set and character build a tad too hastily, before we had any proper storyboards actually in place, hence not really knowing what we required. Thankfully that man I can’t remember the name of, the set builder guy, set us back on the straight and narrow and I am now hard at work producing a storyboard, which will then be used for the animatic and hopefully be ready for Friday.
On Friday we all got together and h
ad a day of building which was quite a nice organic experience; watching the character develop as we found stuff that would suite it. The characters we had built where the acne brothers or whatever there called, a policeman, Jim, Carl and the 
Sarge. Considering they are constructed out of odds and ends that Ben had amassed and a collection of hacked up Barbies and Action Men the evil aliens look surprisingly like my concept sketches (which I now have for your viewing pleasure along with some possible ideas for the sets, im sorry if some of them are sidewase) and the policeman bares some resemblance. The other characters are a bit different as they are adapted from things that Ben had already built. Ben has also constructed a cityscape, which I think sums up the overall hicildy-picaldy look we want. Hopefully we will be able to use all of this in the animation but if worse comes to worse we can always use them as guides for future building sessions. I will try t
o get some photographs of all of this along with the animatic for next week.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
I feal all piraty. Arghhhh!
So here we are again, proving that I have not learnt my lesson and am a glutton for punishment I am about to embark upon a voyage into the sea of stop-motion aboard the good ship ignorance. Will it be a voyage of no return? Only time shall tell. And the scurvy sea dog’s accompanying me: peg leg Ben and rum-swilling Rosie.
O.K. I’m running out of sea-faring words now so I will stop and behave myself. In all seriousness I think that we can actually do something quite interesting with the old robot script, despite the disappointing sound. At the moment I think we are going for a spoof buddy cop series about two officers who are rather past their prime and of course the big joke is that actually, everybody is a robot.
I have been looking at quite a lot of Quay brothers’ stuff which has resulted in some rather trippy ideas: we are thinking of possibly nicking the idea of the tricycle ridden by Gilgamesh in This Unnameable Little Broom, (which I can’t actually find on Youtube, so apologies) and plonking the chief character in a similar contraption, surrounded by monitors, blinky lights and wot-not. I have also been toying with the idea of not giving any of the characters mouths or legs, conveniently eliminating the need for lip-sync or walk-cycles. I do have sketches of all of this but I am a bit pressed for time so I will try and scan them in later.
In terms of the set and props I have been thinking of quite a disappointing and satirical future where the human race has made little progress beyond making everything nice and shiny. I think the sets have the most scope for bringing humor into the script so hopefully we can work in quite a lot of visual gags. I have been looking at the work of Ken Adam, who among many other films designed the sets for most of the James Bond films and Dr. Strangelove, as his sets look quite futuristic but also have that 60’s/70’s vibe about them and I think that this could be an interesting look for the L.A. of the future.
O.K. I’m running out of sea-faring words now so I will stop and behave myself. In all seriousness I think that we can actually do something quite interesting with the old robot script, despite the disappointing sound. At the moment I think we are going for a spoof buddy cop series about two officers who are rather past their prime and of course the big joke is that actually, everybody is a robot.
I have been looking at quite a lot of Quay brothers’ stuff which has resulted in some rather trippy ideas: we are thinking of possibly nicking the idea of the tricycle ridden by Gilgamesh in This Unnameable Little Broom, (which I can’t actually find on Youtube, so apologies) and plonking the chief character in a similar contraption, surrounded by monitors, blinky lights and wot-not. I have also been toying with the idea of not giving any of the characters mouths or legs, conveniently eliminating the need for lip-sync or walk-cycles. I do have sketches of all of this but I am a bit pressed for time so I will try and scan them in later.
In terms of the set and props I have been thinking of quite a disappointing and satirical future where the human race has made little progress beyond making everything nice and shiny. I think the sets have the most scope for bringing humor into the script so hopefully we can work in quite a lot of visual gags. I have been looking at the work of Ken Adam, who among many other films designed the sets for most of the James Bond films and Dr. Strangelove, as his sets look quite futuristic but also have that 60’s/70’s vibe about them and I think that this could be an interesting look for the L.A. of the future.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Dissertation
Greetings once again and welcome to largely dissertation themed blog. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the reading week task and I’m hoping that that and the literature review things we are doing will help me get back into the swing of essay writing.
At the moment I am not too sure what I want to write about for my dissertation. I’m probably going about it completely the wrong way and looking at individual’s work rather than a specific theory as a starting point. Nevertheless I have carried on and looked at some interesting essays involving the Quay brothers and Jan Svankmajer, who I am interested in but don’t know a huge amount about. So that could be an interesting way of finding some theory’s to look at. On the other hand I am also quite interested in the whole 1920’s/30’s German art scene, DaDa and all of that, particularly the work of George Grosz and John Heartfield but I’m not sure how I would link that to animation.
The other are that I have considered looking at is acting theory as that would hopefully benefit my animation at the same time, the only drawback to that is that, from the little I understand of it, there are so many different theory’s and approaches to acting.
So the jist of what I am trying to get across is that I don’t really know what I am doing.
Anyway just a brief mention of my crazy old lady who throws puppies in the river story. I have had a play at developing my character designs from the original exercise. The originals, as you can see, where quite crude and sketchy and focused wholly on the puppy killing bit of the story.
I have been trying to soften up the character a bit so that the audience will just think it is a nice story about an old lady and her puppies, then I can spring the horrible truth on them!
At the moment I am not too sure what I want to write about for my dissertation. I’m probably going about it completely the wrong way and looking at individual’s work rather than a specific theory as a starting point. Nevertheless I have carried on and looked at some interesting essays involving the Quay brothers and Jan Svankmajer, who I am interested in but don’t know a huge amount about. So that could be an interesting way of finding some theory’s to look at. On the other hand I am also quite interested in the whole 1920’s/30’s German art scene, DaDa and all of that, particularly the work of George Grosz and John Heartfield but I’m not sure how I would link that to animation.
The other are that I have considered looking at is acting theory as that would hopefully benefit my animation at the same time, the only drawback to that is that, from the little I understand of it, there are so many different theory’s and approaches to acting.
So the jist of what I am trying to get across is that I don’t really know what I am doing.
Anyway just a brief mention of my crazy old lady who throws puppies in the river story. I have had a play at developing my character designs from the original exercise. The originals, as you can see, where quite crude and sketchy and focused wholly on the puppy killing bit of the story.
I have been trying to soften up the character a bit so that the audience will just think it is a nice story about an old lady and her puppies, then I can spring the horrible truth on them!
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
What a forgetfull day I am having
The blog returns and you would be forgiven for thinking that after such a lengthy absence I would have a lot to talk about…Well I do, so there.
I think a logical place to start is to have a little natter about the various bits and bobs I have been up to for the past week or so, so assessments. I didn’t think that they went too badly all things considered, with the lip-sync stuff I already had a rough idea of what was wrong with it all and had re shot it, twice, however in fixing the problems I merely created more. I think this is mainly because I rushed the re shoots because I was eating into time that I had set aside to do the storyboard stuff, with hindsight I could have actually afforded to slow down a bit and taken my time as I was able to get the storyboards done quite quickly. Ho-hum, I was going to have another bash at doing the lip-sync today (inspired by the lip-sync workshop at Exeter, that was very good) but after traipsing up the hill I discovered that I had left my dope sheets at home so I will do it tomorrow.
I’m not too sure how the storyboards went really, the feedback was a bit mixed and last time I checked there was no mark on moodle but I’ve got a nagging feeling that I focused too much on the artwork and not enough on developing the story, we shall see though.
Now, on to the reading week…I have actually surprised myself and done some reading! So far, I have read the passages in Paul Wells’ Understanding Animation and Andy Darley’s essay in A Reader in Animation Studies because I already own these books and therefore it required the least effort to find. I went to the library today to get the others and came back with The British Avant-Garde Film and a book which I thought was From The Mouse to The Mermaid but is actually completely the wrong thing altogether (its not been a good day). The other books I couldn’t find but as I have to take that other book back I will have another look tomorrow.
And finally, my other little assignment for this week has been to try and second-guess the next project, a decision I will probably live to regret but I will carry on nevertheless. So what have I done? Well, I shall tell you… since I know that the next project is a 90 second film I have started to develop a possible idea which I have adapted from an exercise Kathy gave us last year when we had to story board a poem, my poem was The Dog by Ogden Nash which I turned into a cheerful story about an old lady who through puppies in a river. My plan was to plan on the character designs as well as trying to bulk out the story, which I have done mentally, but the only actual progress I have made has been to come up with a soundtrack for it, which at the moment consists of me making lots of funny noises on the guitar which by sheer luck rather than skill sounds ok when its all layered together although I think it could do with some kind of percussion baking and maybe an overriding harmony, so I will get on that.
I think a logical place to start is to have a little natter about the various bits and bobs I have been up to for the past week or so, so assessments. I didn’t think that they went too badly all things considered, with the lip-sync stuff I already had a rough idea of what was wrong with it all and had re shot it, twice, however in fixing the problems I merely created more. I think this is mainly because I rushed the re shoots because I was eating into time that I had set aside to do the storyboard stuff, with hindsight I could have actually afforded to slow down a bit and taken my time as I was able to get the storyboards done quite quickly. Ho-hum, I was going to have another bash at doing the lip-sync today (inspired by the lip-sync workshop at Exeter, that was very good) but after traipsing up the hill I discovered that I had left my dope sheets at home so I will do it tomorrow.
I’m not too sure how the storyboards went really, the feedback was a bit mixed and last time I checked there was no mark on moodle but I’ve got a nagging feeling that I focused too much on the artwork and not enough on developing the story, we shall see though.
Now, on to the reading week…I have actually surprised myself and done some reading! So far, I have read the passages in Paul Wells’ Understanding Animation and Andy Darley’s essay in A Reader in Animation Studies because I already own these books and therefore it required the least effort to find. I went to the library today to get the others and came back with The British Avant-Garde Film and a book which I thought was From The Mouse to The Mermaid but is actually completely the wrong thing altogether (its not been a good day). The other books I couldn’t find but as I have to take that other book back I will have another look tomorrow.
And finally, my other little assignment for this week has been to try and second-guess the next project, a decision I will probably live to regret but I will carry on nevertheless. So what have I done? Well, I shall tell you… since I know that the next project is a 90 second film I have started to develop a possible idea which I have adapted from an exercise Kathy gave us last year when we had to story board a poem, my poem was The Dog by Ogden Nash which I turned into a cheerful story about an old lady who through puppies in a river. My plan was to plan on the character designs as well as trying to bulk out the story, which I have done mentally, but the only actual progress I have made has been to come up with a soundtrack for it, which at the moment consists of me making lots of funny noises on the guitar which by sheer luck rather than skill sounds ok when its all layered together although I think it could do with some kind of percussion baking and maybe an overriding harmony, so I will get on that.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Short and Sweet
I’m sorry if this seems a bit rushed but I am bit pressed for time this week but I might have some time to add some more to it tomorrow.
Stop-motion has been a little frustrating this week; I tried to re-shoot it, twice but I still can’t get it right and the first one I did is by far the best so I’m just going to have to submit that one. I have prepared for you a lovely montage of all my animation tests and whatnot that I did with the puppet (the lip-sync stuff I did in flash is on my missing USB pen and the files with the hand drawn animation on have buggered themselves sidewise and refuse to play and have therefore been omitted from the montage). The first little bit shows some basic keying out that I did of the main poses just to get the timing sorted out and the rest is just experiments that I did to try and work out how to animate the puppet. I think it is safe to say that I was a little rusty on animation theory when I started the project and it shows, thankfully a lot of the kinks where worked out in the tests but there are still some issues with the hands in the final one.
As promised I have the colour test that I did of Jesus here for you all to see, my finished storyboard actually looks completely different to this; it is a lot darker as I wanted it to look more moody and I haven’t used any ink splats as I have here because it just looked like Jesus’ hands had exploded.
The storyboards are now finished and I am reasonably happy with them, they are a bit hard to follow and ideally I would have spent more time developing the story and tweaking a few drawings but bar that I hope its all ok.
Stop-motion has been a little frustrating this week; I tried to re-shoot it, twice but I still can’t get it right and the first one I did is by far the best so I’m just going to have to submit that one. I have prepared for you a lovely montage of all my animation tests and whatnot that I did with the puppet (the lip-sync stuff I did in flash is on my missing USB pen and the files with the hand drawn animation on have buggered themselves sidewise and refuse to play and have therefore been omitted from the montage). The first little bit shows some basic keying out that I did of the main poses just to get the timing sorted out and the rest is just experiments that I did to try and work out how to animate the puppet. I think it is safe to say that I was a little rusty on animation theory when I started the project and it shows, thankfully a lot of the kinks where worked out in the tests but there are still some issues with the hands in the final one.
As promised I have the colour test that I did of Jesus here for you all to see, my finished storyboard actually looks completely different to this; it is a lot darker as I wanted it to look more moody and I haven’t used any ink splats as I have here because it just looked like Jesus’ hands had exploded. The storyboards are now finished and I am reasonably happy with them, they are a bit hard to follow and ideally I would have spent more time developing the story and tweaking a few drawings but bar that I hope its all ok.
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